KEY POINTS:
John Key's first visit to Ratana as Prime Minister went like a dream - the sunshine, the turnout, the speech well delivered, a very positive reception, and even a hongi from Labour leader Phil Goff.
Mr Goff's first visit as Labour leader went well, too, despite Labour getting
a hard time from one of the Ratana speakers. He was still there last evening talking to the hosts and receiving a tour of the settlement from the Labour critic.
Maori Party co-leader and Ratana member Tariana Turia thought there was something special about this year's event - and that is saying something: last year she likened the election-year procession of politicians to Ratana to "vultures".
After the formalities this year, she said: "I think people have been thinking there has been something special about it." She cited the positive speeches of both Mr Key and Mr Goff.
"All of us are beginning to realise that the way forward is to work constructively in the interests of the whole country."
The annual celebrations mark the birthday of Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana in 1873, the founder of the movement that formed a historic alliance with the first Labour Government.
Mr Key was welcomed on to the marae, his third visit to Ratana, in a party of about 80 with 30 National MPs and the Maori Party, support partners in Government. Extra seats had to be found for the Government delegation.
Mr Key paid tribute to Ratana, but he also praised the Maori Party for "the bravery and the courage and the leadership and the vision they showed to form a partnership" with his Government.
Mr Goff congratulated Mrs Turia on her appointment as a minister in a more conciliatory tone than the toxic atmosphere between the two parties in the few parliamentary sitting weeks at the end of last year.
Speaking without notes, Mr Key talked about partnership, saying it was about give and take, about having some boundaries but also having some flexibility.
"A partnership is about seeing things from each other's perspective. A partnership is not just about being next to one another. It is more than that."
Mr Key spoke of taking "small, positive steps where together we learn what a real partnership is," and a sense of pride of a magnificent country, "peoples who can see the very best in one another and who know the very best lies in front of us".
Mr Key referred to a phone call he made to Maori Party co-leader and Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples from Hawaii during the holidays to discuss the flying of a Maori flag from the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Mr Key said that once Dr Sharples got agreement from iwi on the flag, it would fly not only from the bridge and from Parliament but he would fly it at his Premier House residence in Wellington, which had two flagpoles.
He also predicted that after two years everyone would wonder why it took so long to do something about it.
Mr Key said Dr Sharples would run his own "summit" on employment that would feed into the jobs summit planned for next month.
Mr Key said the best leadership did not necessarily come from government but from individuals and he called on greater personal responsibility to get more Maori children enrolled in early childhood education.
Mr Goff brought about 20 MPs with him. But Ratana speaker Ruia Aperahama said in the powhiri that Labour had taken Ratana for granted and that Ratana's loyalty to Labour had not been reciprocated.
Mr Goff defended Labour's achievements of office, such as cutting Maori unemployment from 18 per cent to under 8 per cent and the return of income-related rents.
But he also pledged to strengthen the relationship with the Ratana movement.
Referring to the change in Government last year, he said "Yes, it was time for a change but remember change goes in cycles and we'll be back."